1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates mainly to a bread making machine for domestic use and, more particularly, to a bread making machine that prepares a dough by mixing and kneading water and ingredients poured into a bread baking case, leavens the dough, and thereafter bakes the leavened dough.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional bread making machine used at home is generally designed to make bread by pouring water and ingredients such as flour and yeast into a bread baking case arranged in a closed container, preparing a dough while mixing and kneading the ingredients within the case, subjecting the dough to primary and secondary leavening processes, and thereafter baking the thus leavened dough. Such a bread making machine has a baking oven main body with an opening on top thereof, and a lid made of a piece of transparent glass is put on the opening to allow the bread making processes to be observed well. The baking oven main body accommodates a bread baking case therein.
Although the aforementioned bread making machine having the lid made of transparent glass is advantageous in observing the bread making processes inside the container, this bread making machine is disadvantageous in that the bread making conditions inside the baking oven main body are susceptible to effects of ambient temperature and humidity through the transparent glass because the glass lid is in direct contact with outside air.
As a result, under a particularly high ambient temperature and under a high humidity, the dough rising degree during the dough leavening process fluctuates to a large extent, making the size, especially, the height of baked breads inconsistent from one season to another. In addition, not only the size but also the finish of the baking are affected, making it likely to impose quality-related problems.
Further, a problem has been addressed in the dough preparing process as well. Since no instructions are given in the manual to adjust the amounts of water and flour in consideration of changes in temperature and humidity from one season to another, finished breads are too high or too short although all the breads are baked using the same amounts of water and flour. Thus, the user has been coerced to adjust the amounts of water and flour based on her sixth sense or experience, which is an uncertain, cumbersome part of the work that makes the bread making with the bread making machine extremely inconvenient.
Still further, the conventional bread making machine determines the start time, continuation time, and operating temperature of each of a leavening process, a finishing process, and a baking process based on measurements made by a dough temperature sensor and an oven temperature sensor. That is, the control of each process is effected based on the operation condition determined by the detected dough temperature and oven temperature. Such a conventional bread making machine cannot take good care of an ingredient when such ingredient has a kind of component that is different from what the bread making machine deems as standard, e.g., when flour has a different gluten content and yeast exhibits a different quality. In addition, the conventional bread making machine can accommodate the amounts of ingredients for one loaf or two loaves of bread, but not for less than one loaf or more than two loaves. Even if breads are made using the same amounts of ingredients under the same outside air temperature and in the same weather condition, the leavening process is, e.g., quickened, or the leavening is, e.g., insufficient. That is, the conventional bread making machine is not successful in properly accommodating differences in the quality and kind of an ingredient used.